Black River's Cranston saves his best for last - Long jumper breaks record on opening day of INSPORTS National Primary Champs

Black River Primary's Alicke Cranston competes on his way to setting a record in the long jump open event at the INSPORTS National Primary Schools Athletics Championships at the National Stadium on Wednesday, May 11.

Alicka Cranston highlighted day one of the 2016 Institute of Sports (INSPORTS National Primary Schools Athletics Championships at the National Stadium yesterday, with a record-breaking leap of 5.42 metres in the Open long jump event.

However, the Black River Primary athlete had to overcome a horrible start after failing at his first two attempts at the four-day championship.

"I was nervous," Cranston told The Gleaner afterwards. "But my coach called me and told me I have the last jump, so I have to jump and try to get it right. But when I jumped, I didn't know I broke the record. It was after my auntie ran and hugged me and told me I broke the long jump record ... and I am very happy."

EXPECTATIONS MET

The pint-size Cranston dismantled the old mark set by Wayne Pinnock of Clan Carthy in 2013. Black River's head coach, Davian Elliot, said he expected nothing less.

"He demolished the record, but what was so great about it is that he did it on his last attempt. His first two jumps were actually better, but he overstepped the line, so on the last jump, he pulled back his marker and took it easy just to make sure he got it right, and he did it. He broke the record. We expected it (record), but not in the prelims, so we are looking for bigger things in the final," he insisted.

Meanwhile, head coach Lloyd Coke of defending champions Naggo Head said they are prepared to retain the championship.

"We have a balanced team; there were areas where we fell down last year and we looked at those and said how can we score points in them. There will be a lot of competition compared to last year, but we are prepared," he said.

Day two activities are scheduled to start at 8 a.m. Three finals are slated for today.